To the Praise and Celebration of Heroes

To the Praise and Celebration of Heroes
By Dino R. Federico, June 2006


he·ro [hrō]
(plural he·roes)
n. 1. mythology legendary man with superhuman powers: in classical mythology, a man, especially the son of a god and a mortal, who is famous for possessing some extraordinary gift, for example, superhuman strength
2. remarkably brave person: somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown great courage, strength of character, or another admirable quality
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

cour·age [kúrrij]
n . quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


You ARE a hero
When you are faced with a decision of wrong or right,
And you choose to do right.

You ARE a hero
When you are challenged with a decision to be responsible, or not,
And you choose not to shirk, avoid, or escape.

If you have learned the depths of your fears,
And have learned to replace your fears with YOUR courage,
Then you are heroic.

If you have been assaulted by the fears of others,
And have learned to shield yourself with faith, hope, and courage,
Then you are heroic.

When you realize you ARE your own lighthouse,
shining brightly in the midst of dark and angry skies,
And when you experience others around you responding to your light
by glowing a little brighter themselves,
Then you will have no more need of the word hero.

And then you may come to realize that as you dwell upon, within yourself,
the praise of your courage, this in turn will fuel the never ending celebration of YOU, (The Hero).

Ever wanted to make your own comic strip? Planetwide Games Comic Book Creator can help!

by Dino R. Federico, BNN Reviewer


Comic Book Creator(TM)(c) by Planetwide Games is hot, easy to use, and a must for anyone who ever wanted to make a comic strip or even a comic book. This is not just for professional artists, this is for ANYONE! There are easy-to-navigate windows and toolboxes; there's the desired drag-and-drop ability, and much more features. Read on for more details, and check your Spidey sense which should be tingling.
On May 5, 2007, I had the opportunity to interview the maker of this great software, Mark Politi, from Planetwide Games. Now before the interview, I had already downloaded a free trial version at
http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com/download/hypercomics/

I was able to create a simple comic strip based on ideas I've had for awhile. Being computer saavy, I found it easy to navigate and create a comic strip in less than 30 minutes.
When I began the interview with Mark, he walked me through all the toolboxes and menu screens. I got even more excited as he showed me options and functions I hadn't discovered yet. One of my favorite is when you publish the comic strip (at hypercomics.com), the screen acts as a real comic book where you hover your mouse over the top right corner of the page and the page peels back and actually "turns" to the next page. This is a great function to share with your fans when you share your work.
Another function that had me itching to make more comics: the easy drag-and-drop feature. Now the software comes with a basic set of images, backgrounds, text fonts, etc., but you can also open any web page, find your favorite graphic, and drag it into your comic strip. (Yes you should respect all copyrighted material, so get permission on logos and such.) Any graphic is available from photos to animated graphics. Speaking of copyright, there is NO ability for anyone to copy or steal your comic book, it can only be viewed.
Other functions include audio clip insertions, rotatable text balloons, rotatable images, and resizable backgrounds and overlays. The future versions will include embedded avi clips.
When you want to publish your final work, the licensed copy of Comic Book CreatorÓ gives you unlimited publishing ability at hypercomics.com. When you include a link to your comic book to anyone in an email or on your web site, it automatically opens up the cover of your comic book! Yes it's a pop-up, but a wanted one :) Also, you can copy your comic strip/book to a DVD to play for any of your fans.
Now what about ideas for a comic strip? Maybe you would like to try making your own story line on a current comic strip. That's right! Planetwide has acquired licenses for Speed Racer, Charlotte's Web, Nacho Libre, and many more. You can obtain add-on packs which include all the graphics, fonts, and character sets for your favorite comic. Currently there are about 10 comic strips available with more to come.
In my working with this comic book software, I have to say it's also definitely for the professional artist. If you create your own characters and graphics, they are easy to import. Think of this like presentation software, but designed specifically to create and publish YOUR comics.
I want to thank Mark Politi from Planetwide Games for the time and information for this article. Keep up the great work!

Here Am I

Here Am I
© 2006 by Dino R. Federico

Here am I.

There be you,

Everywhere are we.

Have you heard the coniferous spruce ask, “Why?”;
Or maybe the leopard on the savannah contemplating, “How come?”.
Have you hear the sea lions in the midst of their barking conventions discussing, “Why us? Is this fair?”; or even maybe the cry of the eagle at midday soaring over the land, “What does it mean? What does it mean?”.

Mankind alone is burdened with the impulse, the desire, the need to know; to know the reason and meaning of moments, events and actions.

All other living things on the planet already know the meaning and reasons by instinct. The living things know all that is and all that transpires happens in the natural course of living, and interacting with the world around.
(And of course the animals don’t take the time to put this conceptual thought to words, or even represented perception… they just know. And act accordingly; they can’t do anything else.

But humans, in all the splendor and intelligence we possess, are constantly interrupting life itself by heeding the4 urge to ponder, explain, discuss, debate, and formulate the meaning of what is… the meaning of life itself. Yet how silly, how foolish, since life IS, life HAPPENS.

The meaning or ranking of importance to any specific moment or event is purely and completely subjective. Can we really define the unique person we want the world to see? And if so, what happens the very next moment after you’ve defined yourself? Are you not again having to adjust, change, modify your definition of you?

Clothing and cars, jewelry and jobs, food and fortune will never define us.
Creeds and deeds, politics and parties, faith and folly, can never fulfill us,
All of these add a part, but none alone define the heart.

Birds continue to eat, nest, and fly.
Fish continue to swim, feed, and reproduce abundantly.
Elephants, Zebras, kangaroos, and spiders all thrive in unity
Without ever the need of a cell phone, a computer, a car, or any machine.

All that nature intended is readily available, and when not, adaptation occurs
Whether to the gain or the loss of life.

Speaking of Words in the Age of Rhetoric

© 2006 by Dino R. Federico

(Thankfully we now live in an era where dialogue, digital media forums, public statements, position papers, etc. are the means of interaction between people, states, and countries. Hopefully, we'll never return to primitive physical aggression as our first method of expression. So here are a few thoughts to be reminded of in the current time of Wars on [fill in the blank, ie, Terror, Drugs, Religion, etc.] )
War is raw ...almost, when phonetically reversed, and most certainly always and exclusively in character.

Love seemingly becomes evolve when written repeatedly in reverse at just the right speed.

When people say “Nothing is forever”, they are correct;
and rightly so, I say, ‘cause who would ever want the exact same thing over and over, forever and ever.

Maybe love does evolve…. shouldn’t it?

Always is impossible; really... I’m serious about this; stop and think….
Always, anytime, anybody, anywhere, every time, everyone, everybody, everywhere, forever, and never are complete conundrums of impossibilities.

I am confident enough in this reality check to call for the elimination of these words from our language.
You disagree? Well, let’s try a couple examples:

“He is always late for work.”
“She never comes to our Sunday brunches.”
“Everywhere I look, someone’s talking on a cell phone.”
Are each more accurately stated:

“He is often late for work.”
“She has yet to attend our Sunday brunch.”
“When I view a group of people, I often observe one or more using a cell phone.”

Okay, you might argue this is no more than frivolous semantics, sorta like "you say toe-may-toe, I say toe-maw-toe." However, I view this as more than a simple personal choice of words; I experience the use of these types of words as a matter of truth or falsehood. Not that people are trying to lie, but more importantly, we’ve grown accustomed to “almost-the-truth” language; and just as worse, exaggerated, embellished, and extremist language.

Hey, I’m not so fixated or stuck on perfection, proper English, and the like to not listen and understand what is said or written. Yet I stand on my ground that the issue of truth is seriously at stake.
If we spoke the truth about the topics of our conversations, we would talk less, yet communicate more.

Haven’t you noticed it seems people are using more words to explain what they are trying to say, and to clarify any possible misperceptions or understandings; and yet that just wastes time and usually confuses things more?
To wrap this up, so to speak [grin], let me put it simply like this:

When you speak, speak the truth. Be a person of your word.
Resist the urge to explain and clarify what you are saying.
Avoid using the “superlatives” or extreme words like always and never.
Resist the urge to comment or speak to every thing said during a conversation;
in other words, listen more, and understand more without offering your two cents;
unless of course you are a KNOW IT ALL.

Stay positive as much as possible in your choice of words; Yes! Think before you speak.
Sometimes the time you spend thinking about what to say will make you aware you really don’t need to speak at all in that moment.

Finally and most important, trust the truth. People will listen to you more, respect you and your view more, and even like you more when you practice saying less to communicate more.